The news reports [add large bag of salt here] say that this wasn’t a black-chamber sensory deprivation thing - it was using what they had to protect the prisoners while they were cutting the chains or whatever that they chained themselves together with. If that’s true, then unlike what the appalling scene it looks like, I’m mostly ok with what it is.

But - why do they carry hoods like that around? Ear protectors, yeah, that’s reasonable safety equipment, especially for cops who shoot guns. Goggles and blankets or jackets or something would be reasonable. Hoods?

No. Those cops could have easily just draped some tarps down, handed the protestors some hearing protection and then cut the chain.
Instead the cops opted to put gitmo style hoods over the protestors’ heads.

Just the latest sick intimidation tactic from an increasingly sick police force.

I can see the narrative in that case developing along the lines of, “Instead of offering proper protection, the police carelessly threw a blanket at the protestor, only for it to immediately fall to the ground”. Or, “The police offered goggles, but the goggles irreparably broke the prescription eyewear the protestor needed for a day job which the protestor was subsequently fired from”. And so on.

Hi there! Portland citizen here. We’ve been having absolutely bonkers wildfires in the area lately. Police, as well as other emergency workers, have been working alongside Firefighters to combat various blazes in the area. Those are pretty standard fire-retardant hoods that have been turned backwards. You can see the face-hole from various angles in the video and photos.

I’ve seen protests where people cuff themselves together with their hands inside a thick-walled metal pipe. This blocks access to the cuffs/chains themselves, and leaves police to have to deploy angle grinders or some other tool on an object surrounding very crunchable human meat and bone.

The cop cuffs I’ve seen (not the novelty ones you get at Spencer’s) don’t have a chain connecting the cuffs and haven’t for years.

I’ve seen protests where people cuff themselves together with their hands inside a thick-walled metal pipe. This blocks access to the cuffs/chains themselves, and leaves police to have to deploy angle grinders or some other tool on an object surrounding very crunchable human meat and bone.

there were photos showing the Portland protesters using this method, yes

That’s what the police claim. But honestly, they don’t need to do anything. They simply can’t stand feeling as if they aren’t in control of the situation. Leaving protesters there would have minimal impact upon actual “public order”.